Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections in June fell to ₹92,849 crore from ₹1.02 lakh crore in May, marking the first time after eight months that indirect tax collections fell below the ₹1 lakh crore mark.
While lockdowns aimed at curbing the second COVID-19 wave hit economic activity and moderated GST revenues in June, the Finance Ministry said that these collections are 2% higher than a year ago and will improve from this month.
“During May 2021, most of the States/UTs were under either complete or partial lock down due to COVID,” the ministry said, citing a 30% fall in e-way bill generation in May from April’s numbers.
“However, with reduction in caseload and easing of lockdowns, the e-way bills generated during June 2021 is 5.5 crore (from 3.99 crore in May) which indicates recovery of trade and business… It is expected that while the GST revenues have dipped during the month of June, the revenues will see an increase again from July 2021 onwards,” the ministry said.
The June GST figures are related to business transactions made during May 2021 and also includes taxes on domestic transactions between June 5 and July 5, 2021, due to extended compliance deadlines for taxpayers.
Tax experts said this decline in GST revenues was expected as several parts of the country had restrictions in place over May.
“With significant relaxations in lockdown and business supplies picking up the collections should see a definite uptick in the coming months,” said Abhishek Jain, tax partner at EY.
The government said that the daily average generation of e-way bills for the first two weeks of April was 20 lakh, which came down to 16 lakh by the last week of that month, and further to 12 lakh in two weeks of May. Since May 23, the average generation of e-way bills has been increasing and has reached again to 20 lakh level since the week beginning June 20, an official statement said.
Of the nearly ₹93,000 crore collected, central GST accounted for ₹16,424 crore, State GST ₹20,397 crore, and Integrated GST of ₹49,079 crore (which included ₹25,762 crore collected on import of goods). Compensation Cess collections were ₹6,949 crore, and included ₹809 crore levied on goods imports.
